There is something about the turn of the calendar to a fresh month that feels invigorating. October to November is one of those moments, when this feeling of ‘I must write a blog post’ seems to take hold. This post serves as a brief catch-up for all my faithful readers. It’s been a bit of an up and down year on the writing front, but there have been a few highlights.
Back in June, I received an email from the grandson of Lou Ballato, one of the early linchpins in my love of tennis, and whose signature racquets hang on our wall in Quonnie. It was a follow-up to a piece I published in November 2021 in this blog, entitled “A Collage of Tennis Racquets Keeps Fun Sports Memories Close”
It was so great to connect with him and share in our mutual admiration of his fun and beloved grandfather. I’ve relayed our email conversation to several of my Belle Haven cronies, and to be chatting about Lou again made us all very happy. Thanks, John, for taking the time to let me know how you and your family enjoyed reading my recollections of Lou.
In early August, the Florida Magazine Association held the 2022 Charlie Awards, an annual celebration of statewide magazine editing and writing. Incredibly, for the second year in a row, an article I had written for Naples Illustrated magazine concerning the current status of Florida panthers, won the Silver Award in the category of Service Writing in the 20,000 plus consumer circulation division. I was thrilled. Here’s a link to the article, entitled Felines of the Floridian Forest. This kind of work is exactly why I studied journalism in college. Hat tip to my wonderful editor, Christina Cush, who took her pencil to my work and made the articles even stronger. Much appreciated!
The investigation and exploration of a myriad of topics, and of the broader world, continues to make my life interesting. Engagement with people I might not meet in my everyday life has enriched my understanding of the struggles and triumphs of their lives, mostly on the professional level, but also on a personal level. I find the work of others very inspiring, and I enjoy taking all those life experience threads and incorporating them in my writing.
I look forward to creating more content in the coming months.
For the past year-and-a-half, I’ve been freelance writing for a couple of clients and have found, once again, that I love to work. The opportunity to learn about accomplished, involved and interesting people, or events, organization and topics, and then write about them, continues to expand my lifelong learning curve.
Recently, I’ve mostly written profiles and feature articles for Naples Illustrated magazine. This has included interviews with civic, philanthropic and business leaders throughout Collier County, FL, as well as more in-depth pieces about birds and turtles.
Naples Illustrated July-August 2021 issue. Cover photo features Adrienne Gilhart, who is the subject of an in-depth profile I had fun writing.
While I can’t interview the animals, I do get the chance to speak to experts about our feathered and ninja friends. Research, including interviews, is like eating candy for me – delightful in every way. While my BA in Journalism has proved to be the perfect degree, I think my true calling is to while away my days conducting interviews and pouring over archived material in drafty and voluminous libraries. It’s in those moments that I’ll figure out some minor detail, giving me an insight that turns the piece into compelling reading.
I’m also writing for the North Florida Junior Golf Foundation. The young golfers inspire me as well. They’re trying to craft a future that might involve playing competitive golf, or perhaps it’s just to be a better player and enjoy a walk in the park. Either way, they’re working hard, improving their skills, learning to work with others, sticking to the rules and most importantly, having fun along the way. The PGA and LPGA professionals, accomplished amateurs, men and women volunteers who support these junior golfers, also are incredibly dedicated and praise-worthy, not that they’re looking for all that. They just want the kids to enjoy playing golf. There’s nothing like touching the future, which they’re doing every day.
It all ties back into the concept of lifelong learning, one of the well-known secrets to living a long and fulfilling life. Researching and writing magazine copy, newspaper articles, books, blog posts, you name it, by default, provides a reason to peer through that broader world lens. The view is spectacular.
Lead photo from “Felines of the Floridian Forest,” a feature article in the September issue of Naples Illustrated. Photography by Jay Staton.
But enough about inspiration. Today, I’m excited to share my most recent article appearing in the September, 2021, issue of Naples Illustrated about Florida panthers, the official state animal. Many thanks to Panther Cams photographer Jay Staton who graciously shared his amazing images with the magazine, captured with his custom DSLR camera traps in the Collier County area. The copy and pictures in “Felines of the Floridian Forest” shine a bright light on the multi-layered challenges facing this important yet endangered animal.
I was also recently informed that my birding article won a Silver Award in the Florida Magazine Association’s 2021 Charlie awards – for Best Writing: Service Feature in the Consumer: Circulation over 20K category. As it turns out, this was my very first piece published in Naples Illustrated, entitled Take Flight – Birding in Naples. Former Editor-in-Chief, Christina Boyle Cush, helped edit the piece and likewise was recognized.
If you’d like to check out some of the other pieces I have had published for Naples Illustrated, or for the North Florida Junior Golf Foundation, go to the Recent-Articles page here on my website.
The minute I get a writing assignment finished, my thoughts turn to my book and blog. At this time of year, it also turns to feeling grateful, for my family, first and foremost, but also for the gift of writing. Sitting down to craft a post, an article or a book is a privilege.
It’s been a busy fall and early winter. We moved houses in early October and, whether you’re moving five miles or five hundred miles, the dreaded packing must commence. Someone recently commented to me that the proverbial ‘they’ haven’t figured out a way – yet – of improving the moving experience. I fail to see how it will improve as long as we own furniture, clothes and keepsakes, which I’m not ready to part with. But let’s put all the hassle-factor of moving to the side and focus on the many positive aspects of re-shuffling our lives.
Our Week in Naples Between Houses
In our particular situation, we had a week in between domiciles with our former home closing a week before we could purchase and move into our new house. What to do? We decided to take a trip to southwest Florida so that I could soak in all things Naples, or at least as much as a 5-day visit could provide, in support of my freelance gig writing for Naples Illustrated Magazine.
Luckily, I had scheduled an interview with one of the Paradise Coast’s leading biologists for a new assignment and was looking forward to that. I’d also arranged to meet a few people related to some of the articles I’d already written so the next thing I knew, we were happily ensconced at a Naples hotel.
Our Naples sojourn kicked off with a drive down to the Everglades, where we visited the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge, “a mosaic of estuarine habitat where freshwater meets salt water,” as the visitor board describes. We walked to the bird blind and looked out over an immense area filled with marshes, wildlife, water, birds and lush vegetation. Once you are in these refuges, the sense of stillness takes over.
We then drove down Pine Crest Loop, visiting Smallwood’s Store, which unfortunately had just closed for the day. Author Randy Wayne White suggested this as a fun destination in the Insider Profile I wrote for Naples Illustrated Magazine in the November issue.
Corkscrew Sanctuary, Rookery Bay, Naples Botanical Gardens and Ding Darling
Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Standing amid the “largest stand of virgin bald cypress in the world” (700 acres), with some of the trees 600 or more years old. Source: Bill McNee
The next morning, we headed out to Audubon’s Corkscrew Sanctuary, where we walked along the boardwalk and witnessed another feat of Paradise Coast conservation with old growth cypress trees, the ghost orchid, rare plantings and exquisite flowers cascading left and right. Scenery-rich moments like these help you forget all the complications of life.
We took a late afternoon sunset cruise in the Rookery Bay Natural Estuarine Research Reserve. Our captain, Nick, showed us around the estuary and we watched as a thousand birds descended onto tree branches with the utmost delicacy, rooting out interlopers and late-arrivers. Warm breezes whisked off our shoulders as we cruised the bay, going right near Keewaydin Island, home to many Loggerhead Sea Turtle nests. It was everything I thought a sunset cruise would be: warm, fun and interesting as beautiful scenery slipped by.
Early the next morning, we visited Naples Botanical Gardens, where we linked up with a local birder, Ed Kemnitzer, his wife Liana, and some of their wonderful friends who all enjoy birding and nature. I connected with Ed via my editor at Naples Illustrated Magazine, so that I could get a few quotes for my birding article entitled Take Flight: Birding in Naples(pages 78-83), likewise published in the November 2020 issue.
Scopes, binoculars and cameras surfaced, and we set out on a trek around this amazing 170-acre, award-winning facility which was founded in 1993. Liana is a docent at the Gardens, so we had a special tour, peppered with her insights and formidable knowledge. As we walked along, Liana was detailing many of the plants and garden features and Ed and his expert birder friends were calling out all the different avian species.
Bill and I were in our glory taking in all this information, enjoying the exotic plants from all over the world and appreciating the many conservation offerings Naples offered. For my husband the naturalist, it was sheer delight as he grew up with nature / garden-loving parents. For me, the writer and unabashed nature-lover, it was the exact combination of fun and learning that makes life so interesting.
We took a drive through Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, another nature gem. Lots of turtle crossings. We then stopped at J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island and cruised along the four-mile Wildlife Drive, stopping frequently to hop out and observe the birds. Great fun, including a beautiful Reddish Egret!
Fort De Soto State Park
Marbled Godwit and Sanderling, Fort De Soto State Park, Tierra Verde, FL. Source: Bill McNee
On our way back home, we also visited Fort De Soto State Park. It had to be one of the coolest bird / beach / scenery combinations we’d ever seen, and that’s saying a lot because every other locale we had visited on this trip was spectacular, not to mention various other trips we’ve taken! We saw some new “life list” birds, including a flock of over 200 Red Knots, which migrate 11,000 miles twice a year from Canada to southern South America. We loved walking on the beach, taking in an enormous expanse of shoreline, people having a good time and of course, the superstar birds we encountered along the way.
Pound for pound, this was by far the most nature-packed, spectacular trip we had ever taken. A sheer delight. After moving into our new house and spending a few nights there, we headed north to pick up our youngest daughter in college and celebrate Thanksgiving with our older girls. We were so glad that we could all come together then, as we followed the advice of many not to fly them south for the Christmas holidays. While we missed them terribly, better safe and healthy in the current era.
Entire Contents @ 2010-2020 Marianne J. McNee. All rights reserved.
